About Lyric / cyan base
Lyric / cyan base is the latest work for my Experimental Print Club, edition #26. I editioned the piece at Spike Print Studio in December 2023, with help and expert guidance from Martyn Grimmer.
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Lyric / cyan base / EPC #26
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Cyanotype on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm 100% cotton rag
Mounted to Somerset 300gsm 100% cotton rag
Printed at Spike Island Print Studio, December 2023
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Sheet size 38cm W x 44cm H
Image size 24cm W x 30cm H
In situ and in the studio
I’ve included an excerpt from my Print Club newsletter here. If you’d like to, you can subscribe for free, and receive thoughts and news about the latest drawings and editions as they progress.
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You can subscribe to the newsletter here >
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Print Club News / 1st November, 2023
Read the full newsletter here >
…I just wanted to post a quick note to say that I am actively pursuing the next Print Club edition this week! The last couple of months have been strangely busy here, in part because I’ve been working towards the Woolwich Contemporary opening, and in part because I’ve had an unusually large number of commissions moving through the studio. In fact I have three live ones still in progress.
There’s also been a lovely opportunity to learn more about two new (to me) techniques, cyanotypes and gum bichromate prints. Both will inform my practice in the future I’m sure, but for now I’m focusing on making a cyanotype edition for the Print Club.
It’s a really interesting technique, and brings a huge amount of life to the digital drawings. I’ve posted an image of the piece I’m hoping to complete here, albeit with a very uneven tonal range across the sheet. It’s a little more complicated than it may sound, as I have to access Spike Print to use the UV box in the darkroom there…
Sometime back in the autumn of 2023 I started working at Spike Print Studio, an open print space for artists working in and around Bristol, here in the South West. The opportunity to get out of my own studio and work in a larger shared space a few times a month is irresistible, and inevitably I've been meeting new people and exploring new possibilities for printmaking. It's been a revelation in many ways...
For at least a decade now I've been exploring and writing about my interest in the hybridity between the digital and the analogue, what is gained and what is lost in the transition between these two very specific ways of working, and seeing if it's possible to navigate a path that uses components of each to create new works that couldn't have been made in the pre digital era; but that still evoke some of the beauty and magic of the more traditional techniques from our shared history. Looking backward as a method for moving forward as it were.
The Cyanotype is one such process, discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1842, it's one of the first methods artists discovered for fixing a light based photographic image permanently to paper. The studios at Spike incorporate a traditional darkroom, and so it's entirely possible to experiment with a wide range of photographic techniques there.
There's a brilliant tutor working at Spike, Martyn Grimmer, who specialises in alt photography, especially gum bichromate printmaking, and also teaches artists who want to develop their practice, or just learn more about particular techniques. I've been signing up to his classes to expand my knowledge, and also just to increase my ability to work efficiently in the space. Martyn's expert tutelage has allowed me to fast track this first Cyanotype edition, through his relentless attention to detail and expertise.
If you'd like to see more of Martyn's work, which is absolutely stunning, it's online here >
https://www.instagram.com/martyngrimmer/
If you'd like to know more about the Cyanotype process this Wikipedia article is a good place to start >
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotype
And there's a link here to find out more about Spike Print Studio >
https://spikeprintstudio.org/
These first editions are imaged onto Fabriano Artistico paper coated with a mix of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, which sensitises the paper to UV light and creates an emulsion that is hardened when exposed to UV light, leaving the highlight areas soft enough to wash away after exposure.
For this edition I've used a double coating technique that intensifies the cyan colour, and then a hydrogen peroxide wash that shifts the bright cyan to a deeper indigo hue.
The final prints are then tipped into a sheet of Somerset 300gsm 100% cotton rag. Each has a full watermark, bottom right, and are signed and numbered verso.
About the Print Club
If you’d like to receive three or four exclusive new editions in the post each year, alongside personal news and views from the studio, and invitations to shows and fairs, please do consider becoming a member of my Experimental Print Club. You can join or leave the club at any time, with absolutely no obligation to stay any longer than you want to.
New works are sent out somewhat sporadically throughout the year, often in line with the changing seasons. Each piece is unique, exclusive, and only available on the day it’s editioned, the size of the edition being determined by the number of members on the day.
I hope the club presents a more personal and intriguing way to connect with the studio, by creating a platform for collecting engaging new works for your home. The club is hosted online here, and I send out fairly regular blog posts and emails about the work too. I’d like to think that it’s an interesting proposition!
Membership is currently priced at £36 per month inc. UK delivery, or £42 for an international address.
Associated works
